Posts Made By: mike welsh

Screed. In a word: Screed.

This "article" is an opinion piece, and not a really very well written one at that.

i took a little time to cruise the WND site, and before their popups jammed the computer, got a feel for where their views are coming... have a hard time lending nuch credibility to the general POV, but bookmarked it all the same for future reference.

On a pesonal note, i was troubled by the line claiming: "The few minor differences that exist between them are like the minor differences that exist between the Welsh, the Scots, and the Londoners. They are still all Britons." that demonstrates to me, at least, that the author has no grasp on the concept of ethnicity. As the son of a Scot, i have a great deal of trouble with being informed that we were "Britons."

Looking into the author's own ethnicity, we see that she -her forebearers at least- hails from The Lebanon... are there not diverse ethnic groups there? Is there arguably a "Lebanese" melting-pot? i think there are Druze and Kurds living in the Levant who would disagree.

For the sake of arguement, no "Palestine" perhaps ever existed as such. It is a label of convenience, for among the population before the foundation of Israel were Arabs -Moslem and Christian alike, Jews, Zoroastrians, B'hais, Greeks, Turks, etc. Be that as it may, they were the inhabitants of the region before the influx of mainly European foreigners (not too different than the Americas with their various ethnically diverse native groups before the arrival of Europeans.)

It can be argued that the arrival and growth of the mainly Western, mainly European "Israelis" DEFINED what "Palestinian" was: the people who lived there before the invasion (a loaded word, for sure, but why mince words?) of these Westerners.

Also interesting to note is the idea expressed WRT nation-states. Syria, Jordan, etc. were also arguably not "nations" until the Colonial European (and before them, the Turks) drew up their boundries. Is the fact that "Palestine" was not afforded the recognition of the colonials, the condescension of their definition of Statehood mean that the existing occupants ought to be deprived of their homeland?

Just some thoughts on a monday morning...

Bush... landslide.

Damn.

Jim,
i know quite a few folks who voted for Nader... mostly younger early-20-somethings, some voting for pres for the first time...

They all regret it and do not plan to do it again, no matter what... and none of them is voting Bush, either.

Sad thing is, a couple will just sit it out. Their free choice is no choice... but i've already told 'em not to
b!tch about it to me later...

Sounds plausible, Jim. Why don't you research it and get back to us in a few years? There's a good fellow...

Ditto:Telrad (and the Telrad finder-chart books!), but also recommend mounting a 8X50 ST finder as well as it will show stars down to magnitudes as plotted on the Tirion atlas and be a real help in zero-ing in on dim fuzzies not shown on the Telrad charts.

Rigel Quick-Finder is a nice item as well...

i have kept it tuned in on the old beatup radio in one of my workshops... sometimes i can't do my job because i'm ROTFLMAO... they're pretty good at hitting the dark corners of US politics... and it annoys the bejeebers out of some folks here who need to be annoyed.

Gonna miss 'em, though... the local station just announced that they're dropping Air America at midnight local (more of the "contractual problems" that've plagued them here in Chicago? Can't say,) and my computer isn't set up for streaming...

i have a feeling that their listenership in this market's pretty good judging on my very informal poll among folks i know, but the Chicago market's one of -if not THE- hottest radio markets in the country... competition for that advertising buck is pretty stiff.

The sad thing to me at least is all the crowing and cackling there'll be from the Wrongwing dittoheads that will have to be endured until a new affiliate picks up the slack here... but, hey, i'm a Cubs fan too, so i've become pretty enured to derision.

More info:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55041-2004Apr29.html

Well, this alleged "liberal" sees a far closer tie between 9/11 and Saudi Arabia.

Why didn't we whack them?

Agreed, Maurice, but we must NEVER allow ourselves to stoop to their level of depravity.

Sadly, this murder comes as no great surprise, given the course of the news from Iraq... i'm afraid that we can expect more, and worse, outrages.

Joe,
i attended catholic schools (grade, HS & college.)

As grade schoolers, we looked down our noses at the public school kids down the street. It was an general attitude among those in our system -we got it from our teachers, older sibs, upper graders, and our parents... we were told we were superior.

The PS down the street was actually a rather good school... the neighbourhood was upwardly-mobile middle and working class and the general attitude of the parents was one that valued education. Academically, things were more equal than not. Our superiority at catholic school was largely mythical... we did not have the facilties to match the PS, and our teachers were mostly unpaid nuns who were in many cases barely qualified to teach -they weren't required to be "certified." The only subject we were therefore "superior" in was religion.

My HS was rather good... the teachers there were pretty tough, and we did cover the academics thoroughly, BUT what was lacking was any serious career counseling. We were expected to go on to college -most of us (~95%) did - but there was not too much help and advice available if one chose to leave the system (i'll note here that my HS was a catholic seminary... if you stayed in that system, all you had to do was show up at their college -provided you had the grades. If you wanted to go elsewhere for college, you had to find your own way there.)

i eventually wound up at a Jesuit-run university... no better or worse than any other private U, i guess. College is what you make of it... actually i saw no difference one school to the next among students of similar calibre. i have other opinions about Jesuit-run schools, but chose not to elaborate here... (continued-)